IT’S OFFICIAL—-Daniel Friedman is Running for Mayor of Spring Valley

Posted January 24th, 2013

At 26-years-old, he’s been the youngest elected official in Rockland County, three years running.

In 2013, he’s setting his heights higher.

He’s Daniel Friedman, Ramapo Councilman. And as of now, he is officially a 2013 Democratic candidate for mayor of Spring Valley. Friedman is making his announcement exclusively through the Rockland County Times and social media.

Councilman Friedman is an earnest man. If he is going to talk about something, he usually does some work first. So it was no surprise to see when he sat down with the Rockland County Times this week, he brought a plethora of notes and statistics detailing the woes of Spring Valley.

According to Friedman, since incumbent Mayor Noramie Jasmin joined the village board in December 2001, village taxes have gone up over 90 percent. Since she was elected mayor in 2009, she raised her own salary from $92,000 to $125,000 in just three years. She also spent over $50,000 on a luxury SUV, a price Friedman called “the most expensive car for a government official in Rockland.”

Friedman said he’d be happy with a humble hybrid, you know, one that gets 60 miles per gallon, not a gas guzzler like Mayor Jasmin’s SUV, which only gets 15 miles per gallon. The taxpayers pay the bill for that fuel. Friedman pointed out that at the current rate of salary inflation that Mayor Jasmin has written for herself, she’ll be making over $200,000 by the end her second term.

When she became a trustee in 2001, the position only paid $9,500 a year. Under her leadership, the position now costs taxpayers $25,750.

While he’s been on the town board in Ramapo, Friedman has been a bit more frugal than Jasmin. He has spent time consolidating government services and boasts of lowering energy costs for town buildings by 30 percent.

If he wins his race for mayor, he said the first thing he will do is a full audit of the village. “I think the village’s debt is larger than she says it is,” Friedman opined, before jabbing, “she busted the tax cap at every opportunity.”

The 26-year-old has a Masters in Public Administration from Pace Graduate School. He points out his several primary opponents either have not attended college or in Jasmin’s case have only an Associate’s degree.

Maybe that study of public administration will help Friedman when he takes on the task of kick-starting the village’s economic development, should he win.

Friedman is disappointed with some of the changes in Spring Valley’s downtown. The village cleared out a lot of area and built new condos and commercial buildings, but the only problem is, “if you build it, they will come” has not been the operating principle.

Heading east on Main St., there is a noticeable lack of businesses and the new condos do not appear to be selling like hotcakes either.

“She spent millions to kick out businesses. Instead of businesses now we have one Papa John’s. That’s not economic development. That’s economic failure,” Friedman said.

Spring Valley is one of the municipalities with the highest concentration of crime in Rockland. Whoever is mayor of Spring Valley, also has to double as sheriff, to some degree. According to Friedman, the key will be building a better partnership with police. Making sure they have what they need, including a clear line of communication to the mayor’s office.

Friedman boasts that he has good relationships with people in Albany and will be more successful in attracting state grants as mayor than Jasmin. He also says he will put an end to pay increases. “I will put out a pledge, the mayor salary will not increase unless it’s part of a balanced budget, and even then” it will only increase incrementally.

However, a pay cut is not in his campaign playbook at this time. “I’m not Bloomberg, who will work for a dollar,” he said.

The up and coming Democrat is confident he can make a difference for the Village of Spring Valley. Keep an eye out for him, he’s been knocking on doors since November and the cold weather will not deter him.

Comments

Oh G-d, good luck Spring Valley. He is ranting about the current Mayor’s spending habits. Isn’t the same fool who grossly indebted the Town of Ramapo by voting for every bond issue that St. Lawrence put up for that albatross of a stadium? Of course it is. I guess he has a short memory.

"While he’s been on the town board in Ramapo, Friedman has been a bit more frugal than Jasmin." Excuse me? In what way? Friedman and his fellow puppets on the Ramapo Town Board voted to approve over $60 million in ballpark debt. They approved change order after change order, cost overrun after cost overrun. They even approved paying fines levied against contractors who failed to comply with the law. Don't forget that he and his pals voted to approve $25 million in short-term bonds to get around the voters' overwhelming rejection of long-term bonds. And those bonds were just refinanced into long-term obligations. And for most of those votes, he and the rest of the board "did not know how much the stadium would cost, or how it would be paid for," according to the NYS Comptroller audit. But what the heck, at least he got over $6,000 in contributions from the companies involved in building the ballpark. Oh, and that electricity savings? Let's not fail to note that shortly after that contract was signed with Premier Energy Services, Friedman received two checks, each for $2,500, from the company. Friedman has spent the last three years helping Chris St. Lawrence and his pals lead the Town of Ramapo to financial ruin while lining his political coffers. What part of that is "frugal"?